The present invention relates to a service system for maintenance, inspection and monitoring of air conditioners and more suitably to a service system that enables quick or reliable maintenance services in the event of a trouble.
A technology has been known which, to quickly deal with an abnormal control condition of an air conditioner or a request for version-up, stores in the air conditioner the abnormal data representing an abnormal control condition and the version-up information for making improvements on a program and makes these data accessible via a communication system of a wireless communication terminal. Such a technology is disclosed in JP-A-10-132362, for example.
Another technology is known which monitors the operating condition of an air conditioner and puts the monitored information in the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) file format on the Internet to enable a diagnostic of a failure to be performed and necessary steps to be taken quickly in the event of a failure. Such a technology is disclosed in JP-A-11-230602.
These conventional technologies are desirable for a serviceman to quickly deal with an abnormal condition of the air conditioner in an individual system or to forestall a possible failure or shutdown. As the system has become sophisticated in recent years, however, in terms of diversity and complexity with a number of units being used even in a single building, there are growing demands for increased speed of information transmission and for information sharing, not only in the field of maintenance and management such as repair services but also in other fields ranging from customer relationship management to design and development in the factory.
In light of the circumstances described above, an object of the present invention therefore is to provide a service system for air conditioners which offers a total solution to a wide range of fields, from the customer relationship management covering individual users of air conditioners, building owners and administrators and building management companies to the maintenance and management, manufacture, design, and development on the part of the manufacturer.
Another object of the invention is to provide a service system for air conditioners which not only allows maintenance services to be provided more quickly but also enables building owners and administrators and building management companies to cut back on personnel expenditure and running cost for management.
To achieve the above objectives, there is provided a service system for air conditioners that monitors the operating condition of the air conditioners and performs their maintenance, the service system comprising: a monitoring center having a customer database having customer information, an operation information database for storing operation information of the air conditioners for each customer, and a device information database having device information on the air conditioners and related with each of the customers stored in the customer database; wherein the monitoring center checks the operation information for any anomaly of the air conditioners and, when it decides that an abnormal condition has occurred, transmits information representing a content of the anomaly and the customer information and device information associated with the operation information that was judged to be abnormal, over the Internet to a cellular phone capable of displaying character information.
In the above service system, the information representing the content of the anomaly and displayed on a screen of the cellular phone is preferably a failure code, a failure name, and information on an electric system in a building where a failed air conditioner is installed.
In the above service system, the cellular phone preferably displays the information by successively switching the screens.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a service system for air conditioners which, in the event of a trouble, restores them to normal, the service system comprising: a monitoring center for checking operation information of the air conditioners for any anomaly or sign of anomaly and posting information related with the anomaly on an Internet home page; and a cellular phone made usable as an input terminal to access the home page; wherein reply information concerning the anomaly or sign of anomaly can be entered from the cellular phone.
In the above service system, the reply information preferably includes a link that can access, with a single action, a response home page provided by the monitoring center.
In the above service system, it is preferred that whether a serviceman has arrived at a site be able to be entered as the reply information.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a service system for air conditioners which, when it is decided that there is an anomaly or sign of anomaly with the air conditioners, restores them to normal, the service system comprising: a monitoring center having a device information database having device information on the air conditioners, a failure code database for storing, for each failure code, information representing a content of anomaly and its possible cause, and a parts information database having maintenance parts information related with the devices in the device information database and with the failure codes, the monitoring center being adapted to check for any anomaly or sign of anomaly of the air conditioners and post the failure code on an Internet home page; and a terminal device capable of accessing the monitoring center over the Internet; wherein an order of maintenance parts associated with the failure code can be made from the terminal device.
In the above service system, it is preferred that information representing prices, stocks and delivery times of maintenance parts be provided from the monitoring center to the terminal device when the maintenance parts are ordered.
In the above service system, it is preferred that an invoice be able to be generated in response to the ordering of maintenance parts and distributed from the monitoring center to the customer.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a service system for air conditioners which remotely monitors the operating condition of the air conditioners for maintenance and inspection, the service system comprising: a monitoring center having a device information database having device information on each type of air conditioner, a failure code database for storing, for each failure code, information representing a content of anomaly and its possible cause, and a parts information database having maintenance parts information related with the devices in the device information database and with the failure codes, the monitoring center being adapted to check for any anomaly or sign of anomaly of the air conditioners and post the failure code on an Internet home page; and a terminal device capable of accessing the monitoring center over the Internet and entering reply information concerning the anomaly or sign of anomaly; wherein the monitoring center takes statistics of failure history for each type of air conditioner stored in the device information database and posts the statistics on the home page so that they can be browsed.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a monitoring center server for monitoring and maintaining air conditioners, comprising: monitoring software for receiving operation information of the air conditioners and checking the operation information for any anomaly or sign of anomaly of the air conditioners; an operation information database for storing the operation information by relating it to customers; and A customer database or a device information database having customer information and device information related to the customers; wherein, when an anomaly or sign of anomaly is detected from the operation information, the monitoring center server transmits information representing a content of the anomaly or sign of anomaly and the customer information and device information associated with the operation information in which the anomaly or sign of anomaly was detected.